Geoff Van Dyke

Editorial Director

Geoff Van Dyke joined the staff of 5280 in 2007 after three years of full-time freelance writing and editing. From 2009 through 2014 he helped lead 5280 to a total of 48 City and Regional Magazine Association award nominations, including multiple nods in General Excellence, and in 2014, 5280 won its first ever award in CRMA's Excellence in Writing category. Van Dyke has edited stories by 5280 staffers that have been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing, Best American Crime Reporting, and Best Food Writing, and he was the editor of "Low On O2," which was a finalist for a 2010 National Magazine Award in the personal service category. His own writing has appeared in national publications including Men’s Journal, Men’s Health, Outside, Bicycling, and the New York Times. Before his stint as a freelancer, Van Dyke was an editor at Men’s Journal. He studied English as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he lives in Denver with his wife and two sons.

Several months ago, in response to a question posed during a 5280.com “live chat,” our food editor, Amanda M. Faison, had this to say about what makes a great restaurant: “More than anything, I think it’s important for anyone opening a restaurant (or currently running a restaurant) to...

On a humid, late-summer day six years ago, my wife and I zipped up our suitcases, popped our seven-month-old son in his car seat, and—with Grandma and our sedated cat in tow—headed for Miami International Airport. We were moving west—to the Mile High City.
Of course, many people before us made...

A year ago, I was having lunch with 5280 senior editor Natasha Gardner and Eli Stokols, the political reporter for KDVR Fox31, when Stokols told us about a nonprofit organization that was exerting outsized influence in state politics. Its founder was a Second Amendment absolutist, a saboteur who...

Copper Kettle Brewing Company
Head southeast on Leetsdale Drive, and not far from the Aurora border, in a nondescript strip mall, you’ll find Copper Kettle Brewing Company. Local beer lovers should make the short trip because Copper Kettle feels a little like Cheers, if Cheers were...

One evening a few months ago, my five-year-old son, Sebastian, asked me over dinner how beer was made. Reflexively, I held my pale ale to the light to show the color; I told him how the sweet malted barley was balanced by the bitterness of the hops; and I explained how the yeast ate the sugars and...

Two years ago, when Denverite Dimity McDowell (above, left) and co-author Sarah Bowen Shea’s book, Run Like a Mother, was published, the two had no idea what they’d begun. On the eve of the release of the duo’s second book, Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line—and Not Lose Your...

After 15 years, I finally got a taste of Colorado’s famous pow—an almost unnervingly different experience than riding the groomers I was used to. But with Vail snowboard instructor Mike Dunworth’s help, I did it without face-planting or, worse, careening into a yard sale. His tips for any...